(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adjustable instrument mount for mounting light weight instruments and more particularly to a two-axis adjustable instrument mount having a fixed base plate, an intermediate plate and an instrument mount plate. The intermediate plate is attached to the base plate by a three-point mount. Two of the mounting points include intermediate hinge flex plates fixed to the edge of the intermediate plate and fixed to the mounting plate. The third mounting point has a resilient block allowing adjustment of the angle of the intermediate plate about the axis of the hinge plates with respect to the base plate. The instrument mount plate is similarly attached to the intermediate plate with the axis of the instrument mount hinge plates rotated 90 degrees from that of the intermediate plate.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Adjustable instrument mounts are well known in the art. Such a mount is required when testing a buoyant test vehicle. In the course of a test, a buoyant test vehicle is released from a point at some depth below the surface of the ocean and allowed to rise vertically to the surface propelled by the vehicles own buoyancy. A compass is mounted within the vehicle to determine pitch, yaw and rotation of the vehicle as it speeds to the surface. In order to set the initial pitch and yaw readings to zero it is necessary to align the compass with respect to the vehicle axis. A prior art mount consisted of a bent plate attached to the vehicle by a screw passing through a slot in the plate. To align the compass with the vehicle axis, the plate was bent and the mount was slid on its mounting screw until the compass was properly aligned with the vehicle axis. The process was time consuming in that adjustment made by bending the plate affected adjustment made by sliding the mount, and vice versa.
Other prior art adjustable mounts provided for adjustment in one direction only. Typical of these types of mounts are tripod camera mounts as in Trebes et al (U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,848) and instrument mounts as in Roser et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,702). In Trebes et al, a mounting plate has a number of feet, at least one of which has an adjusting screw. The plate is placed on a surface and the adjusting screws are turned to obtain the desired orientation of the plate with respect to the surface. In Roser et al, the instrument mount consists of a supporting plate secured to a surface at both ends, one end being fixed, the other end being adjustable toward or away from the surface. The adjustments either toward or away from the surface are accomplished by means of threaded fasteners. The prior art noted lacks the flexibility to quickly adjust the supported instrument in more than one direction as is required for the compass mounting in the buoyant test vehicle.